A Board of Supervisors committee unanimously supported a performance audit of the city's troubled Housing Authority, but not a single supervisor even mentioned the name of the agency's chief, Henry Alvarez, who is being sued by three employees, and they skimmed over the laundry list of tenant complaints dogging the authority.

The Chronicle has been reporting for two months about the lawsuits, other allegations of bullying and intimidation against Alvarez, and low ratings by the federal authorities that fund the agency, which provides housing to low-income San Franciscans. And this week we reported that if Alvarez can hang on a few more months, he will get a full pension and health care for life.

But supervisors steered clear of such specifics Thursday, instead focusing broadly on a performance and management audit. It still has to be approved by the full board, and will then take about four months to complete.

"We have heard for years about living conditions in housing developments," said Supervisor David Campos, who proposed the review and has three Housing Authority properties in his Mission and Bernal Heights district.

"I know all of us on this board are committed to making sure the needs of these residents are addressed. ... A management and performance audit is about simply providing a picture of what's happening, what ways the agency is serving the needs of constituents and residents. It's an opportunity to see positives and negatives, the areas where there has been improvement, and the areas where improvements could be made if that's the case."

The public hospital, which serves elderly and disabled adults, was awarded a five-star quality rating this week by federal officials; its staffing was already rated at five stars. Now, the hospital's challenge is raising its health inspection rating, which is now at three stars. Five is the highest rating in all three categories by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees such facilities.

Quality ratings are based on "how well nursing homes are caring for their residents' physical and clinical needs," according to the federal agency; health inspections are based on three years "of on-site inspections, including both standard surveys and any complaint surveys," while staffing ratings "look at the number of hours of care on average provided to each resident each day by nursing staff," based on the needs of residents.

Laguna Honda - which is run by the city's Department of Public Health - reopened its doors in 2010, after a 10-year, $585 million upgrade that was riddled by cost overruns. The hospital's executive administrator said this week's ratings news shows that "it's a new era for Laguna Honda," which he called "the most modern nursing facility in the country."

- Marisa Lagos

Ringing in change: You can consider the past three Sundays practice or perhaps a grace period. But now that you've been warned, and given a break, it's time to start paying the piper. Or, more specifically, feeding the parking meters on Sundays - for the first time in 65 years.

Unless you want to risk getting a pricey ticket: $72 downtown, $62 in other parts of the city.

The Municipal Transportation Agency's initial plan, as approved in April, was to start writing tickets on Jan. 6 but officials decided to stick with having parking enforcement officers issue warnings - verbal or printed - to cars parked at meters for the first three Sundays of the month.

Parking enforcement officers issued about 11,000 printed and verbal warnings - 4,000 each of the first two Sundays and 3,000 last weekend. In addition, the agency placed ads in newspapers, sent out messages on social media and the agency website, notified employers, posted notices in storefronts and on Muni buses and trains and alerted churches, neighborhood, business and tourism organizations, said Paul Rose, an MTA spokesman.

The Sunday meter charges are expected to bring in an additional $2 million a year. Meters already produce about $47 million annually.